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X Outage: Darkstorm group claims cyberattack, Musk blames Ukraine origins

X, formerly known as Twitter, faced a major disruption on Monday night, March 10, 2025, as it was hit by a series of outages. The social media platform went down for several hours in what Elon Musk, the platform’s owner, described as a “massive cyberattack.” The attack, which unfolded in three distinct stages, left users across the globe scrambling to access the site, with reports flooding in about difficulties in logging in or using the platform. Musk also pointed out that the attack was linked to IP addresses originating from Ukraine, sparking further intrigue. But what exactly happened? Let’s dive in.

A Breakdown of the X Outage

The first signs of trouble began around 3:30 PM IST, when users started reporting issues with X. According to Downdetector.com, which tracks site outages, the problems started small but quickly escalated. Within an hour, the issues seemed to subside. However, things took a dramatic turn again around 6:00 PM IST, when more than 40,000 reports of disruptions flooded the platform. Users were unable to access feeds, tweet, or interact with posts. The service struggled for another hour before finally recovering.

But that wasn’t the end of it. At around 8:40 PM IST, the problems resurfaced for a final time, catching users off guard. This time, the platform seemed to experience more significant problems, leading many to wonder if the site would be down permanently. Although a representative from X was not immediately available for comment, Musk took to the platform to explain what happened.

Elon Musk Blames a Cyberattack from Ukraine

In his usual direct style, Musk took to X to announce that the site had suffered a “massive cyberattack.” He claimed that the attack was orchestrated with significant resources, implying that a well-coordinated group, possibly even a nation-state, was involved. Musk tweeted, “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.”

Later, in an interview on Fox Business, Musk elaborated further, mentioning that the IP addresses tied to the attack appeared to come from Ukraine. He said, “The attack was due to a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.” Musk’s statement added another layer of mystery to the event, though he didn’t provide concrete evidence to back up the claim.

What is a DDoS Attack?

Experts quickly pointed out that the outage likely resulted from a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. For those unfamiliar, a DDoS attack is a method used by cybercriminals to overwhelm a website’s servers with a massive amount of traffic, effectively knocking it offline. Think of it like a flood of internet requests that the servers can’t handle, causing everything to crash. This type of attack is often used by hackers because it doesn’t require direct access to a site’s underlying infrastructure. Instead, attackers simply need to bombard the site with traffic from multiple sources.

Jake Moore, Global Security Advisor at ESET, explained, “Cybercriminals attack from all angles and are incredibly fearless in their attempts. DDoS attacks are a clever way of targeting a company without having to hack into the mainframe, and the perpetrators can remain largely anonymous.”

X is one of the most widely used social media platforms globally, making it a frequent target for hackers and cybercriminals. The platform has been in the spotlight ever since Musk took over, with its reach and influence only growing. Hackers often target high-profile sites like X to make a statement or cause disruption on a massive scale. According to Moore, “X remains one of the most talked about platforms, making it a typical target for hackers marking their own territory.”

Given its prominence and the visibility of Musk’s statements, the attack could have been aimed at causing public embarrassment or disrupting operations on a global stage. While the platform has recovered from the outage, many are left wondering if the next attack will be just around the corner.